The present invention relates to an improvement in a toy air gun which is safe for use by children and is capable of striking targets with a puff of air at a distance with sufficient force to indicate that the targets have been hit. There is a wide variety of toy guns of the toy market. Included in this variety are toy guns which are simply models of guns, guns which produce sound by the use of caps, papers, clickers and other noisemaking means, and guns which are capable of projecting a missile of some type. The two types of guns first mentioned above are the most popular toy guns with parents because such toy guns provide the minimum amount of danger to children. The latter type of toy gun is generally the most popular with children because children can actually determine if an object at which they aimed has been hit.
The type of guns which shoot projectiles are not popular with parents for many reasons. A toy gun which is capable of shooting a projectile can be dangerous to children who are unaware of the inherent dangers in such a gun. A projectile shot from such a gun can strike a person with the possibility of causing severe or permanent injury. For instance, a projectile shot from a gun may strike the eye of a child and permanently impair the vision of that child. Projectiles shot from such toy guns can also bring about property damage in addition to personal injury. For example, a missile shot from a toy gun can break a window, mirror or vase. Furthermore, the projectiles may be left strewed about the house in such a manner that someone may step on one and fall thereby hurting himself. Another disadvantage of such guns is that the projectiles may be permanently lost.
There are also toy guns which shoot a puff of air as a projectile. This type of toy gun has generally been considered safer than the guns which shoot solid projectiles. Toy guns which shoot such a puff of air are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,806,067 to G. J. Le Jeune; 2,534,398 to M. A. Beathan; 2,614,551 to T. M. Shelton; 2,628,450 to T. M. Shelton; 2,846,996 to J. E. Drynan; and 2,879,759 to F. E. Webb, which are incorporated herein by this reference. These guns, which project a puff of air, generally have a resilient diaphragm which is either drawn rearwardly and released or is struck with a hammer to provide the puff of air. An embodiment of a toy gun, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,614,551, is illustrated in FIG. 1 of the present drawings.
The force of air expelled from the toy gun is provided by a resilient diaphragm within the barrel of the gun. The diaphragm is drawn rearward in the barrel stretched and locked in such a rearward position. When the diaphragm is released it abruptly springs forward, due to its inherent resiliency, pushing air in front of it. The air pushed by the rapidly forwardly moving diaphragm is expelled from the muzzle opening of the gun. The barrel of the gun can be tapered toward the muzzle opening to provide a compression chamber within the barrel wherein the air pushed by the diaphragm is compressed from a large diameter section of the barrel to a smaller diameter section of the barrel. In this manner, the air expelled from the gun has a greater velocity than if not compressed and such compressed air forms a more concentrated force as it is expelled from the gun.
There are, however, inherent dangers in toy guns which provide such a puff of air. For example, a solid object placed into the barrel of one of the guns can come into contact with the diaphragm. Thereby, as the diaphragm is moving forward to provide the puff of air it can also be catapulting the solid object from the gun. For example, a pencil loaded into such a toy gun can be propelled from the gun with sufficient force to cause injury or damage.
Another inherent danger in the toy guns which provide a puff of air is that the guns can cause injury when the muzzle of the gun is placed up against an individual and fired. The toy guns provide the puff of air by the forward movement of the resilient diaphragm. The air forced ahead of the diaphragm is compressed within the barrel and expelled out of the muzzle opening. However, if the muzzle opening is effectively blocked, the forward moving compressed air strikes the object blocking the muzzle opening, exerting a substantial force on that object. Therefore, if a child places such a gun up against his ear or the ear of another child and fires the gun, the puff of air could severely damage the ear. Thus, although a gun which fires a puff of air appears to be safe, without proper instruction and during the normal course of children at play, such a gun can prove unsafe.